LePage wants 'floor fight' in Tampa

By ALEXANDER BURNS

02/25/2012 02:32 PM EST

Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage told POLITICO Saturday he hopes to see a “floor fight” at the GOP convention in Tampa this summer, giving the party an opportunity to nominate a “fresh face” rather than one of the battered members of the 2012 field.

“I’m pushing for a floor fight … I’d like to see a good old-fashioned convention and a dark horse come out,” LePage told my colleagues Dave Catanese and Alexander Trowbridge at the National Governors Association winter meeting. “I think the candidates, in my mind, have injured themselves and injured the party by not following Ronald Reagan’s ‘never speak badly of another Republican.’”

While LePage didn’t knock any of the current GOP candidates by name, he made it clear he considers them too compromised to enter a general election on strong footing.

He’s the first major public official to say what countless Republican insiders are murmuring in private: that the party might be better off with a wild-card candidate selected in August rather than one of the damaged options they already have.

“It’s been too messy. I just believe we ought to go to the convention and pick a fresh face,” LePage said. “They beat themselves up so badly that I’d think it’d be nice to have a fresh face.”

Mitt Romney won the caucuses earlier this month in LePage’s state, taking the contest by a narrow margin over Ron Paul. LePage told POLITICO he’s not a fan of the caucus process and would prefer to see a primary in the future.